Going, going, gone! A small town loses THREE banks in a year as branches continue to close all over Britain

One year ago there were four banks on the High Street in the north Essex town of Brightlingsea.
By this autumn only one will remain.

First Nationwide shut, then NatWest said it would leave, and now Barclays has followed suit.
The closures are threatening to bring this thriving community to its knees.

Susie Bowes has only been running Vintique antique shop on the High Street for two months and the Barclays branch is six doors down.
She knew NatWest - further down the road - was going to close when she was looking to open a business bank account. She chose Barclays. It never said it was going to go, too.

Dying branch: The town's Barclays is due to close on September 12

In 56 days’ time, only Lloyds will remain. It made a pledge in 2010 that it would never shut a branch if it was the last bank in a town. But that policy is up for review next year and it won’t make residents any promises about the future.

Residents fear it could be the death of many shops such as Vintique, which pick up a lot of trade from customers passing on their way to and from the bank. This isn’t paranoia. They’ve seen it happen at nearby Wivenhoe and Walton-on-the-Naze.

Banks say they only close branches when they stop being used. For them it’s all about the dreaded F-word: footfall.
With this in mind, you’d imagine Brightlingsea to be a run-down seaside town with quiet streets and boarded-up stores. But it’s far from it.

Arriving on a scorching hot morning I drive up and down the High Street trying to find a car park - before realising you can actually stop on the road.
There is not a yellow line or parking meter to be seen, which makes the shops perfect for popping into.
There is one shop front that is painted over. That’s where the Nationwide branch used to be.

But the rest of the street is clearly thriving. There are 60 or so independent stores and three chains: a tiny Boots, a Co-op and the smallest Tesco Express I’ve ever seen.
It’s not bustling, but there is a steady stream of people, as befits a small town of 9,500 people, half of whom are 65 or over.

Everyone seems to know each other and have time to stop for a chat.
So why are Brightlingsea’s banks shutting up shop?

Since 1990 the UK has lost almost half of its High Street bank branches - more than 8,000. Another 2,500 are expected to close by the end of 2018.
There are now more than 900 towns with just one bank left, and 1,200 communities have been left with no bank at all.

Earlier this month, the chief executive of NatWest, Ross McEwan, described how many of its branches were under threat. He said: ‘The truth is some branches hardly see a customer, which is why we are taking tough decisions about closing some, and sometimes making staff redundant — although that is always a last resort.’

Michael Stobbs owns the butchers in the High Street. Due to retire next year, he is a NatWest customer and is going to put up with the hassle of going to another branch for a year rather than switch to a rival.

He used to run another butcher’s shop 15 miles away in Walton-on-the-Naze. But when that town lost its last bank, in 2000, he shut up his shop not long after.
‘Losing the banks killed the town within six months. It’s the ruination of an entire area, and I think it will kill this town eventually, too,’ he says.

Barclays is at the bottom end of the High Street. It’s a bright and airy branch but, admittedly, very quiet. There are two customers inside. One is being served by the only cashier, while an elderly man stands waiting.

Campaign: Jayne Chapman and Des Rowson want the banks to stay open

On the wall is a white poster displaying the large blue Barclays logo. It says the branch is to close on September 12. ‘Your closest branch is Colchester St John’s,’ it reads.
This large town is ten miles away — but driving along country roads means it’s usually more of an hour-long round trip. And once you get there you’ll need to find space in the multi-storey car park, then weave your way to the branch. For those reliant on public transport, there is just one bus an hour.

NatWest is further up the High Street in Brightlingsea.
Again, there are two people in this branch, and one cashier serving. Another member of staff is busy behind the counter. There are posters in the windows advertising the forthcoming closure, although they display the wrong date.
Again, the reason is because of a lack of footfall.

NatWest says only 41 customers a week use this branch.
To test this, I sit outside on a bench by St James’ Church. Between 10.30am and 11am eight customers go in and out.
Most who pass casually look into the windows of the stores which, like Vintique, rely on passing trade.

Susie Bowes’s shop is double-fronted,
with huge windows displaying quirky dinner plates shaped like fish, and
an antique kitchen dresser.
There are two rocking chairs, and a vintage filing cabinet with tiny tin
drawers. It had been a dream of hers to make a living running a shop
like this.

Most of Vintique’s customers only
discover the shop by chance as they pass on the way to the bank.
Now she’s worried her dream may be over before it’s begun. If customers
stop coming to Brightlingsea, they’ll stop popping in to her shop, too.

‘We don’t want to turn into another Wivenhoe. They lost their banks and now they don’t even have a bakery,’ she says.
She’s going to have to find new ways of making her business survive and is starting selling online. But it’s another cost and takes time.

Incredibly, though many of the other businesses on the High Street also fear what will happen when the banks go, most are planning to stick with their current bank and travel half an hour to the next branch. Few plan on moving their accounts to Lloyds, the only one which will remain.

Zoe Aldridge runs knitting supply shop Woolybuly.
Her account is at NatWest and she’ll be sticking with it.
She plans to do most of her banking at the Post Office, which accepts payments for many High Street banks. But the queues at this little outpost can already be out of the door.

Rebecca Wilkinson, 22, runs Anoda Flowers and is a NatWest customer, too.
She also thinks it is going to be easier to go to the Colchester branch of NatWest once a week rather than change her bank account.

She says: ‘We’re right next to Barclays so I’m concerned that if people just see a big empty unit they won’t bother coming past it to this end of the High Street.’

Closing: The Natwest in Brightlingsea only has 41 customers a week, bank bosses say

Brightlingsea residents campaigned fiercely against the closure of their Nationwide last year. They worked with their council and local newspaper and filled a petition with 3,000 signatures. But it was to no avail.

Town and district councillor Jayne Chapman has so far led the charge with Des Rowson, head of the local business association.
But now they have all but given up.

Des says: ‘We are angry. The banks denied anything was going to happen for so long and then two announce they’re leaving with only three months’ notice.

‘They have no interest in what happens to our community.’

He runs a property business in the town and has chaired the business association for 26 years.
Once the banks’ plans were made public the business association met with bank area managers.
They suggested a shared branch, where one building houses several different brands which split the running costs.

As a compromise, Barclays has said it will trial a ‘pop-up bank’ in the area.
Once a week they will set up shop in a room in the parish hall.
But they won’t carry out cash transactions. Instead customers making payments will be directed to a library computer to conduct their banking online. Both Barclays and NatWest are also advising residents to go to the Post Office.

Already closed: The old Nationwide branch has a sign in the window for customers

Brian House is 75 and has run the High Street newsagents for 46 years. ‘There are a lot of us that can’t do all this internet banking, and we don’t want to. People don’t trust it,’ he says. ‘This is a High Street of cash-based businesses and it feels like banks are trying to get rid of cash. People come into my shop to buy a newspaper — they don’t want to use their credit card for that.’

Jayne adds: ‘My gut feeling is to work with Lloyds. We are encouraging people to switch to a Lloyds account so we can increase footfall. We are fighting to keep our last bank.’

Twenty-five miles away, the small town of Kelvedon has already lost that battle: its last bank left in 2011.
The difference between Kelvedon — which has a population of 4,700 — and Brightlingsea is palpable. At lunchtime there are just one or two people around. Several shops stand empty, with the windows painted over or a ‘To Let’ board outside.

Of the shops that remain many appear to be closed for the day. There are two estate agents, but even one of these is shut. It might as well not be a High Street at all.
The Angel pub does at least seem bustling. Three groups of women order lunch and go to sit in the garden. There are about ten more people inside.

The Little Fish Shop opened one week after the banks closed.
Steve Wright, whose brother owns the fishmongers, says several shops have shut since.
‘People just go to nearby Tiptree for their banking now, and that means they go to the shops there too,’ he says.

This is another town, like Wivenhoe and Walton-on-the-Naze, that Brightlingsea is fighting not to become.
But then there is Coggeshall. It is four miles from Kelvedon, and lost its last bank branch almost 15 years ago.

A medieval market town with a population of just 3,900, it’s like somewhere out of a storybook. The terraced cottages lining the street are painted in an array of pastels. The shops slant picturesquely under the weight of their beautiful, Tudor beams. Brightly-coloured streams of bunting are hung from buildings and lamp-posts.

Independent stores are everywhere, many nestled in the shadow of the town’s clock tower.
There’s a butchers, a supermarket, a hardware store called Fork ’Andles, and, it seems, a pub on every corner.
My guess is Coggeshall draws in tourists and visitors from surrounding towns by capitalising on its quaintness.Perhaps there is hope for towns like Brightlingsea after all.

A spokesman from NatWest says: ‘The Brightlingsea branch is closing because the number of customers using the branch has dropped by nearly a fifth over the past few years.

‘We have an arrangement with the local Post Office that allows our customers to withdraw cash, check balances and pay bills free of charges and we delayed the closure of the branch to make sure this was up and running.’

A spokesman from Barclays says: ‘We look very carefully at local needs before making any decisions on closing a branch.

‘We also explore new ways to serve customers locally rather than relying solely on a bricks-and-mortar presence.’